It’s all just dust in the wind, until it lands on Antarctica, then it’s data
From ScienceBase comes some interesting news. Scientists have figured out how to correlate volcanic activity to particles trapped in the Antarctic ice sheets:
Volcanic activity can have serious consequences for climate change as particles and gases spewed out by volcanoes enter the upper atmosphere and change its chemical balance altering how Solar radiation is absorbed or reflected. Now, French and US researchers have devised a technique for determining how past volcanic eruptions could have affected this delicate chemical balance. Their findings could reduce significantly the uncertainty in current models of global climate change and so provide more accurate predictions of future global temperatures.
The biggest errors in models of global warming and climate change hinge on atmospheric aerosols, explains team member Mark Thiemens, "Now for the first time, we can account for all of the chemistry involving sulfates, which removes uncertainties in how these particles are made and transported. That’s a big deal with climate change."
Now beyond the coolness (ha ha) of getting this data, you have to remember that volcanoes can have a huge impact on our climate. Volcanic eruptions have cause climate cooling, like the year without a summer where it snowed every month of the year in New England and was responsible for massive crop failures.
So could a massive eruption turn back global warming? I don’t think so. Or if it did, I really don’t want to be around for it, because it would be absolutely devastating.
Tags: global warming, climatology
1 Comment
You’re exactly right, a massive explosion (not even Yellowstone caldera sized) could cause devastation to crop yields etc as well as ruining everyone’s summer vacation.
The other point about the current work is that because of the distorting compaction effect of the ice on lower strata, they cannot get at similar data for very far back in history to see what changes took place over millions of years, which is a shame, although I’m sure others are looking elsewhere for volcanic clues. Incidentally, I feed the latest volcanic eruptions on the sciencebase site.